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I know, I know. You told me so." Rory says. "But wasn't this the most fun first date ever?"

"If by fun you mean deadly, then yeah." Abby jokes and rolls her eyes, still overwhelmed but not angry at her friend.

"Wanna do this again sometimes? Just maybe we could stay away from the forest for a bit," Rory pleads, holding her hands into a prayer position.

"Let's do this forever and ever, okay?" Abby shyly looks down, pushing her hair behind her ears.

"Deal." Rory smiles wide, unknowing of what the future holds.

☆━━━━━ Salem's Witch ━━━━━━☆

"Forever, huh?" Rory thinks to herself, reminiscing on the events of yesterday. "I wonder if me, Abby, and Salem are really gonna be best friends forever."

Rory is a bit on edge. Last night, for an unknown reason her parents never came home. All that was left was a note telling her to take care of herself.

Walking through the town square, Rory notices that the atmosphere is strained. Everything is the same, yet too silent for a bustling market on a Sunday morning. People are grouped together like high school cliques whispering amongst themselves. Rory feels a pit in her stomach. What has the Head done now?

Rory begins eavesdropping once she gets close enough to a farmer and their wife. The wife, a midsized woman with worn clothing, holds her toddler son close against her apron. Her partner is a short person with a tattoo sleeve and dark circles under their eyes.

"Emery, did they actually find them? The witches?" she asks, very concerned but with venom in her voice when she mentions the witches.

The partner focuses on zoning their crops. They keep their eyes facing downwards and have closed off body language.

"I heard there was a whole group of those dangerous scumbags," remarks her partner. "We need to protect Mason no matter what,"

Rory's heart begins to race as she continues walking towards Abby's house. She spots two children bullying a smaller, petite child, trying to force a spoonful of an unidentified, smelly, homemade soup into his mouth.

"Hey witch, aren't you gonna eat your potion?"

"Yeah, you better open up or else we'll tell on you to the Head!"

The children both break out into laughter. Moving onwards, Rory sees a group of twenty-something women eating breakfast together, gossiping about.

"I heard that a witch caused Jennie to cheat on her husband!" the first one whispers.

"Oh my gosh, really? Someone told me that witches poisoned their granddad to death!" the second one claims.

"There's this girl from high school who I hated that was soooo toxic- I bet she was one of the witches who were caught," the third one says as she laughs.

As Rory gets closer to Abby's house leaving the town square, she feels feint. Her heartbeat is so loud that she can count them as her headache worsens. For safety, she decides to take the longer route on the outskirts of the forest.

Rory keeps running, running, running— praying to a Goddess she doesn't believe in that her worst nightmare has not come to fruition.

This can't be true! There's no way...

She finally gets to the back porch of Abby's house and races up the wood stairs. When she goes to unlock the door, it creaks open on its own. Inside, all of Abby's family possessions have been smashed and torn through. Rory feels like the wind has been completely knocked out of her.

Up ahead in the other room, she sees Abby's parents talking to police officers. Her parents are sobbing. However, Abby is nowhere to be seen.

"Officers," her dad cries out, "I'm so sorry for raising such a despicable daughter. I would'nt've adopted her if I had known of her ancestry,"

Her mother chimes in. "Please take mercy on us. We are not one of them,"

These liars. How could you?!

A police officer with a round beer belly and a thick mustache groans. His eyes are bloodshot and his face is tinted red. He looks unconcerned with the subject at hand, itching to get back to fooling around.

"Ma'am, we are aware that your daughter Abigail was adopted, so you both are under no suspicion. We thank you for your cooperation with the police throughout this investigation," he responds.

The other officer takes a sip from his grey flask. "Thanks to the intel we received, it was confirmed that the parents of Abigail William are under no affiliation with the heathens. However, we expect your appearance at the Gallows, or else this may change." His eyes narrow while saying the last part.

Rory holds her hand to her face to try to quiet her sniffles. At this point, her face is completely covered in tears. The officers escort the parents into a carriage headed south west.

I have to save her!

Once the officers and her parents leave, Rory grabs a cloak that is too big for her off the floor of the living room. She begins her journey to the Gallows by foot mainly using the trail as cover. It will take longer, but Rory is doing everything in her power to stop the inevitable.

As she races towards defeat, she feels unidentified eyes watching her every step. It is almost as if they would attack with any wrong move. Rory acknowledges the danger in staying this close to the force field for an extended period of time, however she sees no other options. Truly, she's dead either way...

The Gallows is sectioned off from normal society. While the citizens of Salem Kingdom are aware of the trials, they do not know any specific details. They are so blinded by their hatred of magic that most do not care what happens to those who defy the Head's orders. Good is good, bad should be punished accordingly. Aurora really is heading into unknown territory.

At this point, her shoes are dilapidated beyond belief. The sole comes flying off of her left foot, leaving her exposed to the elements. Her short, dark orange overalls rubbing against her thighs cause a splinter of sheering pain with every motion forwards. Rory's stomach is growling and aching as her parents left her with no breakfast.

As she leaves the town area, the land becomes more mountainous. Her feet are covered in blisters and stained in green from the grass. All of a sudden, she trips, landing head first into the ground. Regardless of the pain, she pushes herself back up and continues running. Fortunately, her trek is nearly over. On top of the highest hill lay a tall tower with a single plank. Underneath is a pit of boiling lava. Surrounding the pit is a group of observers.

And up above... is a woman ripping out the hearts of blindfolded and tied up victims, throwing them to be burnt alive.

Rory makes it to a bush nearby the crowd, just in time to see the last victim, a freckled red headed child screaming for mercy. Her tiny legs struggle for solid ground and the observers laugh at her plight. They cheer and cheer, anxious to witness a child's murder. But to them, since she disobeyed the Head, their Goddess who can do no wrong, this is no child.

This is justice.

Rory watches in horror as she is too late. The woman smirks, pleased as she tears out Abby's heart and drops her to her death. Life feels like it is in slow motion for Rory.

Abby falls,

falls,

falls,

falls,

and her body instantly turns to flames.

All Rory can do now is run. Run far away into the abandoned forest that has nothing but more horrifying terrors beyond imagination. There's no food or shelter, and very little chances of her survival. But ultimately she has no other choice.

Because her home burned to the ground at the same moment as her childhood's friend's body did.

☆━━━━━ Salem's Witch ━━━━━━☆

Questions: What do you think lies ahead for Rory as she attempts to survive on her own?

Title Song: Runaway by Aurora